Supported by the Community Relations Council for Good Relations Week 2025:
Enemy Alien - Walter’s Journey through Adversity is written by Csilla Toldy.
It is an illustrated book for young readers from the age of 8 - 99, telling the true story of Walter Sekules, who came to NI as a child in 1947, having survived the Holocaust in Siberia. His family went on to establish a knitting factory in Kilkeel where they often employed up to a hundred women, from both sides of the community, providing work during the Troubles. They contributed to the prosperity of the society and connected people from both sides of the community.
Walter is a young Jewish boy, growing up in a camp for enemy aliens in Kazakhstan, where the winters are harsh, and the summers are hot.
His parents are from Austria, but he was born in Tallin, Estonia.
For Walter, the camp is the only home he has known for six years, while the second world war is raging in Europe. He makes friendships with the soldiers who guard them and nurtures eagle fledglings.
When the war is over, he and his family embark on a three-thousand-mile journey through war-torn Europe, in search of the rest of their family and a new “home”.
Vicky Blades, actor, will read from the book and interview Esther Bloch (Sekules), Walter’s youngest sister.
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